A Tribute

Sixteen years ago a Humane Society graduate came in to our lives and became a much loved family member. Three years ago, his hairy face provided me the inspiration for naming my photo business, Bearded Dog Studios. Two weeks ago he died of an oral tumor that came on fast and aggressive and took a large toll on his quality of life. In the end we chose to put him down because he was in pain, restless and not happy.

But like most things, his end is not the story.

Shortly after Laurie and I were married, we decided that we were ready for an addition to our family. We had one cat, 'Bud', my cat from my bachelor days, and he needed a companion, as Laurie and I both worked. So off we went to the Humane Society looking of a 'black' dog. Laurie had to have a black dog and she already had its name picked out, 'Raisin'. We saw many dogs, even one that looked liked Raisin. We took him into one of the 'Get-Acquainted' rooms, he was not much in the mood to get acquainted with us, instead he just wanted to sniff and figure out what other dogs had been in there before.
Needless to say we were rather bummed, but on our way out we stopped to take one last look at the puppy pen. Out of no where, popped up the head. A shaggy puppy head, already with a full goatee. I looked at that puppy. I looked at Laurie and said, you know, he looks just like Grover on Sesame Street. Except he wasn't blue nor did he have a red nose, but is was a pretty close resemblance.

He's the one we took home that day, a Grover not a Raisin and like I said above we spent the next 16 years together. We added a daughter, Paige, a few more cats, Lewis, Oliver and Cassie, but everyday he was there, ready in the morning to get the newspaper, ready at every meal time to sample a few bites and help do the dishes, ready each time I came home with a tail-wag greeting and ready each evening to jump on the bed, curl up and get a good nights sleep.

Grover, friend, we surely miss you, but are thankful for the time we had together and know one day we will see each other again and when we do, we'll toss that ball again.